I am 51 years old and have been unemployed for almost 4 years. Besides looking for new employment, I spend most of my time helping out my daughter and her husband in taking care of their two children.

In the last couple of years, I saw my family members spending quite a lot of time working or playing on their computers and mobile devices. I always said that this was not for me as I just didn’t’ see the benefit of staring into a screen for a couple of hours. But when spending time with my grandchildren, I realized that new technologies can be fun and useful.

During an appointment with my counsellor at Employment Service, I told her that I want to improve my knowledge in digital technologies. She sent me to a basic computer course, that was carries out by PRIZMA, where I learned basic thing about computers, Word, Excel, social networks, internet, e-mail and mobile devices. During that course, PRIZMA invited me to join the AgeFactor programme. I’m really glad I did that. Not only did I learn a lot of useful things, but I also got to meet other people, who are in a similar position – people over 50 who can sometimes feel that the world is passing by them and they can’t participate in it because of their lack of knowledge.

Now I’m quite confident when I’m using my son’s laptop or my tablet to check latest news or interesting recipes, read an e-book or chat on Facebook with people I know. With some other members of my alpine club, we set up out Facebook page, where we can organise and discuss our next trips and post beautiful photos of our previous trips. I also learn a lot of new things when I use Google, Wikipedia or read articles about things that interest me.

I can definitely say that the quality of my life has improved. Even tough I’m not the most motivated job seeker as I enjoy the life with my family, I have better access to employment opportunities through several online job portals and now I’m currently exploring possibilities to promote and sell some of small wooden products that I make as my hobby through a Facebook page. I feel quite confident and optimistic about my (digital) future.

Stara sem 51 let, brez zaposlitve pa sem skoraj 4 leta. Ob tem, da iščem novo zaposlitev, si čas zapolnim s pomočjo hčeri in njenem možu pri skrbi za njuna otroka.

V zadnjih nekaj letih sem videla, da so moji družinski člani porabili precej časa za delo ali igranje na svojih računalnikih in mobilnih napravah. Vedno sem govorila, da to ni zame, ker nisem videla koristi od nekajurnega gledanja zaslona. Toda ko sem preživljala čas z vnuki, sem spoznala, da so lahko nove tehnologije zabavne in uporabne.

Med srečanjem z mojo svetovalko na Zavodu za zaposlovanje sem ji povedala, da želim izboljšati svoje znanje o digitalnih tehnologijah. Poslala me je na osnovni računalniški tečaj, ki ga je izvajala PRIZMA, kjer sem se naučila osnovne stvari o računalnikih, Wordu, Excelu, družbenih omrežjih, spletu, e-pošti in mobilnih napravah. Med tem tečajem me je PRIZMA povabila, da se pridružim programu AgeFactor. Res sem vesela, da sem to storila. Ne samo, da sem se naučila veliko koristnih stvari, ampak sem se srečal tudi z drugimi ljudmi, ki so v podobnem položaju - osebe, starejša od 50 let, ki se včasih počutijo, da gre svet mimo njih in da ne morejo sodelovati, ker nimajo digitalnih znanj.

Zdaj samozavestno da uporabljam prenosni računalnik ali tablični računalnik mojega sina, da preverim zadnje novice ali zanimive recepte, preberem e-knjigo ali klepetam na Facebooku z ljudmi, ki jih poznam. Z nekaterimi drugimi člani mojega planinskega društva smo ustvarili Facebook stran društva, kjer lahko organiziramo in razpravljamo o naslednjih potovanjih ter objavljamo lepe fotografije naših prejšnjih potovanj. Prav tako se naučim veliko novih stvari, ko uporabljam Google, Wikipedijo ali preberem članke o stvareh, ki me zanimajo.

Vsekakor lahko rečem, da se je kakovost mojega življenja izboljšala. Tudi če nisem najbolj motiviran iskalec zaposlitve, saj uživam v življenju z družino, imam boljši dostop do zaposlitvenih priložnosti prek več spletnih portalov za delo in zdaj preučujem možnosti za promocijo in prodajo nekaterih majhnih lesenih izdelkov, ki jih ustvarjam, s pomočjo Facebook strani. Počutim se povsem samozavestno in optimistično glede svoje (digitalne) prihodnosti.